Let’s hear it for Virgo!

Maligned mistress of ritual and earth magic.

Illustration: Demeter, enthroned and extending her hand in a benediction toward the kneeling Metaneira, who offers Demeter wheat. 340 BCE Red figure hydria. Apulia, Italy. Public Domain.

Virgo’s have a bad rep in Astrology, they are seen as nit-picking, nervous, detail obsessed, and sometimes neurotic. But of course, there is another side, in my book Goddess Astrology I give Virgo to the great goddess Demeter. Unbeknown to me, Marcus Manilius also gave Virgo to Demeter in his 1st-century Roman work Astronomicon, so I am in good company. In art, the constellation Virgo holds Spica, a sheaf of wheat in her hand and sits beside constellation Leo the Lion.

Demeter, you may remember, lost her daughter Persephone, who was kidnapped by Hades and taken into the Underworld. Demeter, desperately searching for her daughter, with the goddess Hekate, heard of the betrayal. Zeus had told Hades he could have Persephone for his wife. Enraged Demeter stopped nature. There were no crops, no food. She withdrew, sensibly deciding that she could not defeat Zeus on his terms, with force, she abandoned the world and its people to demonstrate her power and displeasure.

This is an important Virgo lesson. We may think we can do without ‘the little people’ who keep things going, and control and manipulate nature, but nature will always win out against such Hubris. Hubris is the Ancient Greek word for pride, particularly imagining one is god-like, or as we might call it losing touch with reality. Hubris, is always followed by Nemesis, which means total annihilation. We see this in powerful people who imagine they are untouchable, only to discover that those people they once crushed underfoot are now a crowd baying for their blood. And that, their ‘bright ideas’ caused a cascade of disastrous unintended consequences.

Virgo, would never lose her head in this way. She understands how things are connected, how modesty and rhythm lead to a peaceful and bountiful existence. She does not need to be showy, she will get her reward from the fruits of her labours, quietly, decorously, abundantly.

Demeter’s next move is also a core Virgo. After withdrawing her labour, she finds herself in Eleusis and meets some noblewomen at the well, a place where women met unaccompanied by men. The women recognise there is something special about this humbly dressed older woman. They invite her to the palace to care for the Queen’s infant son.

Service, is the mode of all earth signs, but Virgo is particularly drawn to personal care. They are interested in health and sickness, and have the patience to deal with babies and the elderly and infirm in a no-nonsense, compassionate and efficient way.

But Demeter is a goddess, although she has hidden her magnificence under cloak of mourning. To give the child the gift of immortality, each night she puts him through the fire, burning away his humanity. This is a kind of human alchemy, which I feel Virgo excels at.

Human alchemy? What physical practices transform the body? Well, you could argue many things, but one, regular, ritualistic practice does for sure, and that is yoga. Yoga is a daily spiritual practice of breath, meditation, and physical movement whose intention is to ‘purify’ the body of old patterns.

‘Regular yoga practice cleanses the area around the spiritual heart and removes the six poisons of kama (desire), krodha (anger), moha (delusion), lobha (greed), matsarya (envy) and mada (sloth).’¹

All music to Virgo’s ears, as she values humility, peacefulness, simplicity, and service. It comes as no surprise that two of the more well-known yoga practitioners are Virgos, Kino (quoted above) and Laruga. Both women are practitioners of Ashtanga Yoga, which is super ritualistic. The same postures are practiced, day in day out for years, while slowly more difficult poses are added. This results in a slow and steady, grounded, transformation.

Demeter’s journey does not end there. When the child’s mother, spying on the goddess, sees her holding the child in the fire she cries out. And the goddess, annoyed, reveals her whole magnificent divine self. The women of the palace gather and throughout the night Demeter teaches them her Mysteries. In the morning, the men are summoned and instructed to build a temple to Demeter.

The Mysteries Demeter taught the women of the palace were the Eleusian Mysteries which were celebrated for over two thousand years, until shut down by Theodosius the Roman Christian Emperor in 392CE. In true Virgo style, the Mysteries were open to everyone, slaves, foreigners, Greek citizens, later Roman citizens, men and women. There was no buy-in for the wealthy, no exclusivity for the powerful. Each person was admitted on an equal footing, which was extraordinary for its time.

A votive plaque known as the Ninnion Tablet illustrating elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries, discovered in the sanctuary at Eleusis (mid-4th century BCE). National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Creative Commons 2.5.

Participants in the Greater and Lesser Mysteries were sworn to secrecy and no one broke their oath (in Ancient Greece, the penalty was death). We only have the vaguest of ideas of what occurred from late Roman times (when the ritual may have changed anyway). The rites probably concerned Persephone returning to the light, new growth, and personal transformation. It is likely that hallucinogens were ingested making it a deeply personal as well as communal ritual.

Drawing of the motif of a gold ring from Mycenae depicting a goddess (possibly a proto Demeter) holding three poppies, in the background a labrys (double axe) c 1400-1200 BCE.

Virgo, then is the sign of ritual and ritual magic and meditation and all inward focused spiritual practices.

The final gift of Demeter is the gift of grain. She is the goddess of agriculture and, after her daughter is returned she shows humanity how to feed itself. No surprise then that Starhawk, who is known for her practice of worshiping the goddess, is also passionate about permaculture, a sane way to grow food (see Goddess Astrology p. 37-8) has Virgo rising.

Terracotta relief. 3rdC BCE. Italy, Magna Graeca. Notice the poppies, wheat and the sacred snakes.

Again, the lesson of Virgo about simplicity is illustrated here. Food, simple, basic, unadorned, healthful food gives us healthy bodies, chemically altered and sprayed non-food which tastes great, is addictive makes us sick and fat. The ‘great idea’ to manufacture fake-food turned out to have a whole heap of unintended consequences, dementia, type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease etc. etc. Virgo teaches us humility, we are not gods. If we work with nature, and we are an integral part of nature, all will be well. If we assume god-like powers, Nemesis will surely follow as it has in this case.

1. https://kinoyoga.com/the-yoga-of-purification/ ↩︎